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An unusually strong batch of ecstasy is on the streets, causing fatal and non-fatal overdoses around the country, drug experts and police have warned.

The active ingredient in ecstasy, MDMA, had traditionally been included in very low quantities in pills sold in Australia, said Paul Dillon, spokesman for the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre.

But recent data obtained by police in NSW, Victoria and South Australia showed that ecstasy pills containing MDMA were significantly stronger than what Australian users were used to, Mr Dillon said. The commander of the NSW Drug Squad, Detective Superintendent David Laidlaw, said: "With the taking of any type of drug it can be fatal - you just don't know."

While there was usually an increase in drug use around the country over the holidays, Superintendent Laidlaw said most fatal and non-fatal overdoses had been in South Australia.

A 19-year-old man died in Adelaide this month after he overdosed on the drug, and in October a 38-year-old South Australian man also died after an ecstasy overdose. Both had taken a red ecstasy pill branded with the Mitsubishi label originally thought to have contained the highly toxic para-methoxyamphetamine, or PMA.

"The pills ... actually had a very high content of MDMA," said David Caldicott, an emergency research fellow in toxicology at Royal Adelaide Hospital. "Ecstasy has been very poor in this country in terms of purity - it has traditionally contained between 50 and 130 milligrams [of MDMA] with the majority down at the lower end of the scale."

Toxicology tests found the "red Mitsubishi" tablets, as well as other kinds of ecstasy, contained 110 milligrams of MDMA. "If in the past you were used to taking two to three pills to get a high, and you take [that many] containing 110 milligrams, you are going to take a toxic dose," he said.

Mr Dillon agreed, saying the big problems associated with ecstasy were related to dehydration and overheating, both directly linked to MDMA. "With these high-strength pills it would appear that some people are getting into real difficulty with the drug [and] once again we come down to the simple fact that MDMA ... is not a safe drug," he said. "With the current batch of pills, overdose is a very real risk."

Urging drug users to be cautious over the party season, Adam Winstock, the clinical director for drug health services at South Western Sydney Area Health Service, described the dangers of ecstasy use as "a lottery".

"You will always have that uncertainty, but there are also other, underlying physical problems that people might have [that add to the danger], such as heart problems or idiosyncratic, non-predictable effects on their liver or brain," Dr Winstock said.